Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), 6 February 2012


EFITA newsletter / 552 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


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Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net


Something like the pub of our Ian Houseman but in Brittany (France)
See: http://www.panoramic-360.info/flash/taverne.htm


4th Agribusiness Economics Conference: Globalizing Food Chains and the Emerging Economies: Agribusiness Potentials and Issues
10th - 11th July 2012 - DAVAO CITY, the Philippines
This conference is organized by the Office of Research, University of the Philippines Mindanao, in cooperation with the School of Management.
This conference will tackle agribusiness potentials and issues in globalizing food chains, particularly their implications for emerging economies and small-scale producers, and will cover relevant issues, such as but not limited to supply chain management and value chain analysis, production, agricultural economics, extension strategies, food safety and consumer behavior, rural development, and climate change and environmental issues.
Our call for abstracts is still ongoing, and we hope that participants from your institution can join us to share their research.
See: https://sites.google.com/a/upmin.edu.ph/4abe/
E-mail: research(a)upmin.edu.ph.


Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) in Cyprus
In 2012 the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) is celebrating 50 years of agricultural research in Cyprus. The ARI is a Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of the Republic of Cyprus. The Institute conducts research directly applicable to the broad area of agriculture and livestock in order to solve problems faced by Cypriot farmers.

To learn more about ARI, it’s research activities you can visit our website…
http://www.ari.gov.cy – in Greek language – and
http://arinet.ari.gov.cy - in English language.

Contact: George ADAMIDES
E-mail: adamides(a)arinet.ari.gov.cy

The „Food Industry Competence Network“ (origin: Kompetenznetzwerk Ernährungswirtschaft) started 2011 in Switzerland
The network is there to:
- give answers and solutions to contractors in the agriculture and food industry on the constantly changing-challenges of the market - Motto: „fit for the markets“
- build up a comprehensive network with partners along the whole chain of the food industry - Motto: „fit for partners“
- transfer knowledge from research to practice - Motto: „fit for news“
The network was initiated by three trade associations of the canton of Thurgau and supports mainly small and medium-sized businesses. In this regard a close and intersectoral networking as well as support to realise innovations are standing in the foreground.
We like to invite all players of the agriculture and food industry sectors in Switzerland to partizipate in the network.
See: http://www.ernaehrungswirtschaft.ch (sorry, just in German language) or our flyer…
See: http://www.ernaehrungswirtschaft.ch/documents/news/knw-e_flyer_en.pdf
Contact: Frank BUROSE
E-Mail: info(a)ernaehrungswirtschaft.ch

New EU ICT-AGRI CALL: ICT and Automation for a Greener Agriculture
The ICT-AGRI 2nd call for trans-national projects aims at improving the utilization of ICT and automation for a sustainable use of natural resources, reduction of agriculture’s environmental footprints, adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, while securing food supply, quality and safety, farm economy, working conditions, and animal welfare.

>>> Scope of the call
The call takes its offset in agricul-ture’s grand challenges as ex-pressed in the 3rd SCAR Foresight Exercise*. According to the fore-sight, a radical change in food consumption and production in Europe is avoidable.
ICT-AGRI considers ICT and auto-mation to have a crucial enabling role of for accomplishing radical changes in primary agricultural production.
The call is therefore focused on innovations in the use of ICT and automation in primary agricul-ture. Projects are expected to de-velop and demonstrate feasible solutions for farming with proven positive effects towards a greener European agriculture.

>>> Funding
Funding in this call is provided by national funding agencies in a vir-tual common pot, meaning that funding is restricted to be used within the respective funding countries. Expected total funding amounts to € 4- 5 million. Funding conditions and amounts vary be-tween countries.

>>> Call Process
The call is using a two-step selec-tion process. Pre-proposals are reviewed by the funding agencies for eligibility and relevance ac-cording to call topics, added-value of cross-border collaboration and national priorities. Consortia be-hind successful pre-proposals are invited to submit a full proposal, which will go through a peer-review before the final selection and funding decision by the fund-ing agencies

>>> Important eligibility criteria
Projects must include partners from at least three funding countries.
Partners from non-funding countries can participate by funding their own involvement.
Projects must be of duration up to 36 months.
Projects are required to state quantified and measurable expectations of the sustainable use of natural resources, reduction of agriculture’s environmental footprints and adaptation to and mitigation of cli-mate changes.
Projects are required to seek compatible, transferable and scalable methods and technologies.
Projects must demonstrate a clear added-value of being carried out trans-nationally.

>>> Call Opening
The electronic submission system is expected to open in March 2012 with a deadline for submit-ting pre-proposals by the end of April 2012.

>>> Further Information
The full Guide for Applicants including national funding and national regulations is available at the time of call opening. The ICT-AGRI partners representing the funding agencies are available for more information. For information and contact, visit our home-page http://ict-agri.eu

>>> Online search for partners
A dedicated tool for suggesting proposals and searching for part-ners is available from January 2012 in ICT-AGRI Meta Knowledge Base http://db-ictagri.eu

Contact: Iver THYSEN, Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation
E-mail: ivth(a)fi.dk


COIN Scientific Results with publication of published papers / abstracts are available on the COIN Portal
See: http://www.coin-ip.eu/research/coin-results/Papers


Online Survey on Scientific Information in the Digital Age
See: http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/survey-on-scientific-information-digital-age_en.pdf
The EC held the survey late 2011 in the context of obtaining ideas to adopt a Communication and Recommendation on access to and preservation of scientific information.
>>> Objective of survey
The objective of the open consultation was to gather information from as many sources as possible, including governments, research institutes and universities, libraries, scientific publishers, research funding organizations, businesses, individual researchers, and other interested parties on their views on scientific information in the digital age. The consultation will feed into the development of possible policy options to be considered, and will contribute to the ex-ante impact assessment that will be carried out.
The consultation was set-up as follows:
1. The respondent
2. What role for Europe?
3. Access to digital scientific information (including open access): scientific publications
4. Preservation of digital scientific information
5. Comments
See: http://aims.fao.org/news/european-commission-releases-survey-report-scientific-information-digital-age (Log in is required for accessing the content)


The sensitive man
A woman meets a man in a bar. They talk; they connect; they end up leaving together. They get back to his place, and as he shows her around his apartment.

She notices that one wall of his bedroom is completely filled with soft, sweet, cuddly teddy bears. There are three shelves in the bedroom, with hundreds and hundreds of cute, cuddly teddy bears carefully placed in rows, covering the entire wall! It was obvious that he had taken quite some time to lovingly arrange them and she was immediately touched by the amount of thought he had put into organizing the display. There were small bears all along the bottom shelf, medium-sized bears covering the length of the middle shelf, and huge, enormous bears running all the way along the top shelf.

She found it strange for an obviously masculine guy to have such a large collection of Teddy Bears. She is quite impressed by his sensitive side but doesn't mention this to him.

They share a bottle of wine and continue talking and, after a while, she finds herself thinking: 'Oh my God! Maybe, this guy could be the one! Maybe he could be the future father of my children?'
She turns to him and kisses him lightly on the lips. He responds warmly. They continue to kiss, the passionbuilds, and he romantically lifts her in his arms and carries her into his bedroom where they rip off each other's clothes and make hot, steamy love. She is so overwhelmed that she responds with more passion, more creativity, more heat than she has ever known.

After an intense, explosive night of raw passion with this sensitive guy, they are lying there together in the afterglow. The woman rolls over, gently strokes his chest and asks coyly, 'Well, how was it?'

The guy gently smiles at her, strokes her cheek, looks deeply into her eyes, and says:

'Help yourself to any prize from the middle shelf'.


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